8.30.2004

All Under Heaven

This evening I saw Yimou Zhang's film "Hero." It's an excellent piece of story-telling, infused with a classical interdisciplinary spirit. Even though the unity (peace) vs. diversity (chaos) dialectical ideology is conspicuous, it barely distracted from the aesthetic of the narrative. I really enjoyed that the climax was both existential and hermeneutical. Highly recommended. And if you come away not "getting it," at least you'll have enjoyed the groovy soundtrack.

Speaking of heroes and dialectics, Smallville season four premieres 22 Sept. It'll be a ridiculous shame if they get carried away with trying to re-teenify the series, dropping the darkness and mythology in favor of standard WB superficiality.